Today, I read a blog post from Flying Magazine titled “Why the Coming Pilot Shortage Isn’t Creating Lots of New Pilots . . . Yet.” There is much debate around the topic of the “pilot shortage” and the numerous comments on Flying Magazine's blog post are a testament to it. Rather than me opinionate on the topic, I would like ask a few questions to see if we can ascertain the facts.

The author of the Flying Magazine Blog, Robert Goyer, covered a few points in his blog, but I want to specifically look at two:

Even though regional airlines are hiring plenty of pilots right now, flight school business is relatively slow. Goyer comments that in the past when hiring was booming, so was enrollment at flight schools.

The second point relates to the 1,500 hour rule. If you are unfamiliar with the rule, read about it here. Goyer says that new pilots will graduate from aviation programs and still need to build a significant amount of flight time. Goyer suggests that graduates will stay at their institution of learning longer than usual to build the required 1,500 hours. The problem is, instructors will stay longer and the instructor jobs will not be available for the new graduates.

So here are my questions to you…

1. What has been the trend of your enrollment over the past 12 months?

2. Do you think new graduates will have difficultly building flight experience as flight instructors because there will be a shortage of jobs?

Choosing to be a professional pilot is not a decision that should be made lightly. Brown Aviation Lease published a Pilot ROI Analysis Infographic in September that uses data pulled from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that compares the career of a pilot, lawyer, teacher and doctor. Click here to download the infographic.